Regarding your editorial about the ``wild hunch`` parents near Barrie are having about the WiFi system affecting their children's` health, I am disappointed by your yellow journalism and absence of facts.

Having not made a single phone call to inquire about the public health disaster unfolding in Simcoe County you have decided we are somehow backward and want to ``turn back the clock``

Had you first investigated you would have learned of an outbreak of tachycardia which is an unexplained rapid heart beat, up to 250 beats per minute in an unusual number of children. You would have learned of a new study showing that this condition is exacerbated by exposure to microwaves. You would have learned that the WiFi system in Simcoe schools is not the standard household system but one of industrial strength that beams microwaves into junior kindergarten classes all day long, where there are in fact zero computers present.

I should think that before attempting to discredit us, you would have learned that the U.S. government issued a study through the National Institutes of Health last fall suggesting that microwaves from such ``carrier frequencies`` may cause both leukemia and cancer ``especially in children``.

And if you had paid attention to Canada`s Parliament, which I understand is a short distance from your office, you would have known that on April 27 and 29th of this year the Standing Committee on Health heard two days of testimony on microwaves and health, which included warnings from three European scientists of cancer, DNA damage and infertility, especially in children.

We appreciate your suggestion that public health officials ``monitor the situation``. Perhaps you will offer your children to monitor because we would like to withdraw our children from this experiment.

Board plans more wireless

Posted By LAURA CUDWORTH , STAFF REPORTER

Area schools will continue to unplug despite the controversy over wireless systems in Simcoe County.

Wi-Fi connections exist in parts of all Avon Maitland District School Board secondary schools and in some elementary schools. The board plans to add more over the next couple of years.

Many schools have gone to using laptops on carts which require a wireless connection, said Steve Howe manager of communications.

A group of parents in Simcoe County say during school their children have been suffering headaches, nausea, sleep disturbances -- symptoms that go away on weekends. Those parents say the cause is the microwave radiation from the Wi-Fi systems.

The Simcoe County Safe School Committee asked the board to go back to hard-wired Internet connections but the board declined.

Howe said he wasn't aware of any complaints from parents with children in the Avon Maitland board.

Mindy Gough, co-founder of Stratford Parents Online, said there are about 1,400 families in the group. She doesn't know of any conversations about Wi-Fi among members.

"It's not on people's radar or they're not concerned enough to bring it forward. Quite often if it's a concern to a lot of people it tends to take off," Gough said.

Howe noted Health Canada has said Wi-Fi is safe in low doses.

He added cellphones give off higher concentrations of radiation.

"We've checked it out. We have the research and there are so many other things that emit higher levels. We'll continue to follow what goes on in the science and medical world but at this point we see no need to review and will move forward," he said.

Stratford mayoral candidate Martin Weatherall says he has research too. But his says there is a danger.

"I'm extremely concerned about the safety of children being exposed to very dangerous amounts of microwave radiation," he said.

"It's like a human experiment of the worst kind because we don't know what's going to happen."

A major part of his mayoral platform will focus on Wi-Fi radiation.

One of the studies he points to is one by environmental and resource studies professor at Trent University Magda Havas.

In fact, Havas wrote an open letter to school boards warning about the dangers of both cellphones and wireless routers. In that letter, she notes brain tumours are on the rise in adults who use cellphones and children are more sensitive. She also points to fertility problems.

"The purpose of this open letter is to alert those who are responsible for the health and safety of children to think twice before installing wireless microwave technology in schools and exposing students and staff to radiation that could be potentially harmful," she concluded.

Weatherall insists wireless connections are an unnecessary hazard and should be banned from schools. He suggested the technology may contribute to an increase in cancer rates among youth.

"Children exposed now may not reach middle age. It's that significant."

PG&E Smart Meters

Pacific Gas & Electric Company has been installing SMART METERS in California for some time replacing existing meters. In California the dramatic increases in monthly charges for electricity has skyrocketed (in some cases), leading to lawsuits and protests against the installation of smart meters.

Many PG&E customers have questioned the meters' accuracy and question remain about electricity theft and privacy issues. With many increases in monthly PG&E bills, and with PG&E wanting new rate increases from the Public Utilities Commission, the installation of the SMART Meters looks like a windfall profits tax on electricity consumers by PG&E.

But the accuracy of smart meters - in particular, the ones used by PG&E's - has been called into question. Many angry homeowners have complained that their utility bills soared after the new meters were installed. The California Public Utilities Commission has started an investigation. And San Francisco's city attorney has asked the commission to halt PG&E's meter installations program until the investigation wraps up.Other communities are holding public hearings with regard to this issue and requesting moratoriums on further installations until lawsuits and investigations are completed.

San Anselmo and Fairfax, California State Assemblyman Jared Huffman wants an independent agency to study the health effects of Smart Meters, the electronic monitoring devices that Pacific Gas and Electric Co. is installing statewide to measure the electricity output from each household and business.

Critics also argue that the health effects of the electro-magnetic frequencies and radio frequencies are unknown.

Investigations into the long-term effects of such frequencies are still on-going. A number of additional concerns have been raised about PG&E's Smart Meters, citing privacy, security, accuracy, theft of electricity, and health problems. KGO Radio in San Francisco, Michael Finney, has been investigating the problems associated with SMART Meters and their investigation has rasied additional questions. ( It has been reported that AM Radio signals may also be effected by the installation of SMART Meters.)

The PDF files below are provided as additional information on this issue. This information will be updated as new information becomes available each week.

It should be noted that PG&E has started a newspaper, radio, and television blitz costing $Millions to convince California residents that SMART Meters are good for us. They should save their money and reduce our rates instead.

do you know any researchers working on tree dieoff resultant from smart grid radiation??? we're working here with an apparent correlation between digital internet transmissions over the grid and grid/proximity reactions in ESs...there is an apparent high correlation between line of sight proximity to and die-off/ immune suppression in six- 8 species of diciduous and evergreen forest populations.

WEEP News

by: Martin Weatherall

As a Canadian independent foundation, WEEP acts as an umbrella organization and focuses on progressive initiatives that bring increased awareness, policy change, and entrepreneurial activity around the issues of safe Electro Magnetic emissions.

WEEP News is a service provided by WEEP to keep those interested in and affected by Wireless, Electric, & Electromagnetic Pollution, informed on a daily basis, of all the current issues and initiatives in the world today.